I do think in the hypothetical Yu Na and Mao both went totally clean and Mao went with her hardest projected program, it would still be a toss up to who would win, and come down to 2 points either way. Sadly I dont think Mao is even capable of going truly clean with her hardest planned layout (maybe when she was younger but not today) so in essense it really is Yu Na's to lose.

I do agree it is much different than 2010 where even had both gone clean Mao would have had no chance (but by contrast she was actual much more capable of doing clean in 2010 than she is now, although her current jump layout is even more insanely hard than 2010).

The most likely disaster would be that the airline lost her skates and luggage. This sort of thing seems to happen far too much the last couple years.

Yuna's skates go in her carry-on luggage. Now I don't know about her costumes, but I imagine they go in a carry-on, too. Besides, I'm pretty sure Korean Air will take special precautions with her luggage on her flight to Sochi. They would be crucified otherwise.

Bad Sushi before Sochi? YuNa is not a lock, tho the leader. Julia, Gracie, Adelina, ? are hungry!

This realy could happen. At last GPF in Sochi P.Chan complaind about the fish he got to eat. He got the runs and said this was the reason his skates were bad. Later on he said he was happy his pants stayed clean. So no fish for Patrick, Yuna and the other medal contenders.

Right, this girls are hungry for the titel. But may the best hunter gets the gold.

I guess there might be individual air lines that won't allow that, but it doesn't violate TSA rules.

But the TSA has jurisdiction only over flights departing the USA, right?

In any case, international flights seem to be a crap shoot.
Presumably any elite skater has the sense not to put her/his skates into checked baggage unless absolutely required to do so.

Anecdotally, a number of skaters have had problems with skates going missing in action in checked baggage.
Examples at the time of London Worlds: Ashley Wagner; the ice dancers from Belarus.
Wagner was flying from the U.S. to Canada.

IIRC, one of the Cannuscio sisters (Anastasia, if I'm not mistaken) recently had a problem with lost baggage -- including her skates -- when returning to the U.S. from an international competition.

I do think in the hypothetical Yu Na and Mao both went totally clean and Mao went with her hardest projected program, it would still be a toss up to who would win, and come down to 2 points either way. Sadly I dont think Mao is even capable of going truly clean with her hardest planned layout (maybe when she was younger but not today) so in essense it really is Yu Na's to lose.

I do agree it is much different than 2010 where even had both gone clean Mao would have had no chance (but by contrast she was actual much more capable of doing clean in 2010 than she is now, although her current jump layout is even more insanely hard than 2010).

It depends a lot on how the judging panel views the performances on that day. Sometimes a clean performance and the reactions from the audience can make a big difference.

Julia or Gracie get super clean and Yuna makes 1-2 mistakes. The possibility of Mao going clean is almost zero--she hasmany problems with her multiple jumps, unless judges are blind to all urs and 2 footed jumps.